My love of animals started early in life when my family got our first little dog. I saw the poor conditions of the stray dogs in India and always wished of a better life for them. While I was too young to do anything about it, along with my mother and sister, we saved puppies and dogs from the streets and dropped them off at shelters. After my move to the UK, I volunteered at PDSA to make a small contribution towards the welfare of animals. Only until recently, when I wanted to adopt a dog did I truly realize the number of dogs that need homes. During my search for a suitable dog, I came across a lot of local rescues and followed the work of these amazing people who spend all their time and efforts fighting to save dogs from the meat trade, comforting them back to a calm environment and transporting and rehoming them. I took a step back to re-launch the business with what has always been very near to my heart. When I did a small collaboration with Love My Human for dog clothing and prepared all the knits for the arrival of our little pup, Louie, the idea fell into place.

As the collaboration with Love My Human launched this year in their store, I decided to launch my own line on the website with the lifelong goal of giving back to animals. The dog range includes everything I have knitted for Louie, so it comes pre-approved.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

With every purchase, a £5 donation is made to the rescue listed. Every product from the Dog range triggers a £5 donation along with a product that the rescue is in need of, for instance blankets for winter. For every product you purchase for your fur baby, you help save another in need.

'I hope you and I can make a small difference in the lives of these animals that just need a little love and a forever home'

WHO DO WE SUPPORT?

There are so many rescues we want to help but we will be starting small with one local rescue and HSI (Humane Society International), with the hope of introducing more along the way.

One Paw At A Time is a small Nottingham based rescue started by Shane and Shaun in 2014. They help re home dogs from Romanian and UK pounds with the help of fosterers. They recently extended themselves to save animals from the meat trade in China. This is where you come in. The cost of saving the dogs from China are quite high and we are looking to help raise funds to save as many lives as we can. With every purchase you make, you can help towards saving the life of a dog in the meat trade.

Humans Society International is quite a well known global animal protection organisation that works to help all animals - some include bullfighting, dog and cat meat trade, animal testing and farm animals. Yakshi has been following them for a very long time and also donates personally. This time, we really want to take a step forward to help as much as we can through the business.

WHAT PRODUCTS ARE DONATED TO THE RESCUE?

Along with the monetary donation, we keep in touch with Shaun from One Paw At a Time to enquire about what they need urgently and knit products accordingly. So it could be blankets or jumpers. We would only make a monetary donation to HSI as it is what they need the most to help protect animals around the world.

These products are made from end of line yarns. These are cones that do not have enough yarn on them to make a whole jumper. Instead of getting rid of these yarns, we combine different cones to make up a blanket for donation. We also use any faulty samples that are remade into one of the products for the dogs.